Overnight Health Care: Dem Senate candidate opposes Medicare for All | HHS official compared abortion to Holocaust as a student | Sessions moves to block two doctors from prescribing opioids

The Senate is nearing the end of debate on the massive funding bill for Defense, Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor and Education and a final vote could come as soon as tomorrow. For today, we'll start in Arizona:

Dem Arizona Senate candidate opposes Medicare for All.

Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic candidate in the key Arizona Senate race, is continuing to try to stake out ground as a centrist.

The latest evidence is her opposition to Medicare for All.

"I do not support Medicare for All," Sinema told reporters in video posted by NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard on Wednesday. "I'm really focused on solutions that are realistic and pragmatic and we can get done."

A health official in the Trump administration compared abortion to the Holocaust while in law school, Mother Jones reports.

Scott Lloyd, who has come under fire recently for blocking unaccompanied minors in government custody from getting abortions, wrote in an essay 15 years ago that the similarities between abortion and the Holocaust are "crystal clear."

"The Jews who died in the Holocaust had a chance to laugh, play, sing, dance, learn and love each other. The victims of abortion do not, simply because people have decided this is the way it should be, not through any proper discernment of their humanity" Lloyd reportedly wrote in an essay in 2004 when he was a first-year law student at Catholic University.

He is now the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

HHS responds: "Mr. Lloyd has testified publicly to his personal and religious beliefs regarding abortion, and explained he does not let his religion guide his job as ORR director," said an HHS spokesperson in a statement to The Hill.

"Mr. Lloyd is committed to the mission of the agency, and his concern and compassion for those who come into the care of ORR."

Why it matters: Lloyd has attracted criticism from Congressional Democrats and abortion rights groups for his involvement in blocking unaccompanied minors in HHS custody from getting abortions. Between March and Dec. 19 of last year, Lloyd denied seven requests for abortions, according to depositions of Lloyd released by the ACLU in February.

The Department of Justice is moving to block two Ohio doctors from writing prescriptions because it alleges they dispensed opioids without a legitimate medical purpose.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the announcement in a speech in Ohio on Wednesday. He said the action was the first of its kind and a sign of how serious the administration is about fighting the opioid epidemic.

The DOJ said the doctors had been served this week with temporary restraining orders preventing them from prescribing.

"These injunctions – a temporary restraining order - will stop immediately these doctors from prescribing--without waiting for a criminal prosecution," Sessions said.

Sessions said the move is part of a "series of dramatic announcements that reveal the determination of this administration and this Department of Justice to take strong action to combat the grip of death and destruction that has taken hold of our country."

The Justice Department has indicted two Chinese nationals for allegedly manufacturing and selling deadly drugs around the world that resulted in the deaths of two Americans.

According to the indictment, Fujing Zheng, 35, and his father, Guanghua, 62, operated a global opioid and drug manufacturing conspiracy that involved shipping drugs to 25 countries and 37 states.

Drugs sold by the men allegedly led to the fatal overdoses of two men in Akron, Ohio, the Justice Department said.

The men, who live in Shanghai, China, have been charged with a litany of crimes, including conspiracy to import controlled substances into the U.S

Why it matters: Congressional Republicans and Democrats have pushed for action to stop the flow of opioids into the U.S. A bill addressing the issue has already passed the House, but has not been taken up by the Senate.

In 2016, synthetic opioids were involved in 50 percent of opioid-related deaths, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

An overlooked aspect of the House-passed farm bill was the inclusion of $65 million intended to help establish association health plans (AHPs).

On Wednesday, patient and public health groups sent a letter to the bill's House and Senate conferees urging them to omit that language from the final conference report.

"Given the history of fraud and insolvency in AHPs, using federal funds to establish AHPs would put consumers and providers at risk of unpaid bills and taxpayers at risk of defaulted loans. We are extremely concerned that new agriculture AHPs will once again leave consumers with insufficient coverage, unpaid medical bills, and lifelong health implications - just as many plans did before the Affordable Care Act was enacted," the groups said.

Reminder: Association health plans allow small businesses and other groups to band together to buy health insurance. The Trump administration earlier this summer released a regulation loosening restrictions on association plans, in an effort to offer more affordable coverage options.